Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Leaving the hammer on the table
By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO — It was the right thing to do. Whether the baseball players passed up setting a strike date for the right reasons is something different altogether.
Maybe the ballplayers heard the constant grumbling by fans in those increasingly quiet ballparks. Maybe not.
Maybe they read the reports about all the jobs disappearing along with a handful of ballclubs teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and feel they're lacking in chutzpah, leverage or unity at the moment to draw a line in the infield dirt.
It could be that their leadership feels there's not enough cash in the union's strike fund to call the owners' bluff at this exact moment. Or it could be that cooler heads simply prevailed.
The reasons almost don't matter.
The union left its hammer on the table Monday and extended a hand toward management negotiators instead. Woe to anyone who takes the gesture as a sign of weakness.
“If they do,” union chief Donald Fehr said, “I'd suggest they don't know much about their players. And I'd be astonished if anybody in the commissioner's office interprets it that way.”
As if on cue, management's top labor lawyer, Rob Manfred, said there was no chance of that happening.
“Both parties feel pressure to reach an agreement because of the enormity of the harm that would be caused by strike,” he said during a conference call moments after the union meeting broke up. “We view this as an opportunity.”
Fehr has hardly limited his target audience to management types. He might be a lawyer by training, but Fehr knows there are times when splitting hairs is the last thing you want to do.
To a large number of fans, setting a strike date means there is going to be a strike. They won't be bothered with distinctions when millionaires fight billionaires for a revenue pie that would feed Third World nations. Fans don't want to hear about desperate measures from men making each year what most of them won't make in a lifetime.
So when someone asked how much impact public opinion may have had in Monday's decision, Fehr said, “Players are obviously cognizant of the fan's thinking. They hear from the fans, read what you write in the papers, listen to what you put on radio and TV.”
But then the lawyer in Fehr surfaced.
“Of course, that's a different question than whether one determines a position with public relations as the first point of reference.”
Again, it doesn't matter whether they acted out of mercy, in the spirit of cooperation, because of the good feelings the game generated in the wake of Sept. 11 or because union leadership simply blinked.
That's the beauty of doing nothing in this instance. The effect is the same.
It's now up to the owners to match the good-faith gesture. And dangerous as optimism is around this bunch, there's reason to think this round of negotiations will end better than the disastrous work stoppage that wiped out the end of the 1994 season and the World Series.
“This isn't 1994, both sides sticking their chests out,” Jeff Bagwell of the Astros said in Houston. “You're talking about all the millions of dollars all over the place, but if there's no fans at the games because of a work stoppage, then there's no money for anybody.
“We want to play baseball. That's what we do. We've done a lot of good to get the game back to where it is. I think it's a very special time in the game. Who wants to ruin that?”
We'll find out soon enough.
Fehr said his membership was willing to wait until Friday before considering the question of a strike date again. That gives negotiators three days to make sure the talks are still marking progress, even if only on side issues. He won't let the hammer out of his sight then.
The players can afford to be generous now, and the owners gracious in return. But sooner or later, the only issues left on the table will be revenue sharing and luxury taxes. Then, the sides won't be arguing over public opinion or the moral high ground. They'll be arguing about dollars and cents.
“And you can rest assured,” Fehr said, “that the players know how to protect themselves in the process of collective bargaining.”
———
Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org
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Leaving the hammer on the table
